Orioles continue dominance of FanGraphs’ top prospect lists with yet another No. 1

Stop me if you’ve heard this before; the Baltimore Orioles have the #1 prospect in all of baseball. For the second time this season and the fourth time in as many seasons, baseball’s best prospect is in the Orioles' organization. The prospect rankings have shaken up significantly since Jackson Holliday and other top prospects graduated to the big leagues, and another Orioles prospect has stepped in.

Fangraphs recently released its MLB prospect rankings and Samuel Basallo holds the number one spot. He joins the group of Holliday, Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson as Orioles prospects to reach that designation in the last four years. Basallo took a much different path than his predecessors but has nonetheless reached this milestone on the way to the majors.

Both Rutschman and Holliday were number one overall draft picks that came in with a ton of hype, and Henderson was a second round pick. Henderson and Holliday were drafted out of high school, while Rutschman had been to college. Basallo, on the other hand, was signed as a 16 year old from the Dominican Republic. He had his fair share of hype and signed for a then Orioles record $1.3 million bonus, and he’s been worth every penny. 

Samuel Basallo has a bright future ahead of him in Baltimore

Basallo has steadily improved each season and was promoted to AAA Norfolk in late August, just two weeks after he turned 20 years old. He has put together an impressive resumé thus far, including being named the 2023 Carolina League MVP and 2024 Eastern League top prospect. He’s only played 21 games at the AAA level so he will likely start the season with the Norfolk Tides but shouldn’t be there long. 

Because Basallo signed as a 16 year old he has spent more time in the minors than Rutschman, Henderson and Holliday all spent, but his numbers compare very well.

Basallo: .286/.364/.477, 64 doubles, 7 triples, 50 homers, 202 RBI’s, 24 stolen bases in 325 games   
 
Rutschman:  .281/.390/.487, 38 doubles, 3 triples, 30 homers, 111 RBI’s, 4 stolen bases in 180 games  
Henderson:  .276/.378/.488, 57 doubles, 13 triples, 37 homers, 161 RBI’s, 40 stolen bases in 246 games   

Holliday:  .304/.443/.486, 60 doubles, 9 triples, 23 homers, 122 RBI’s, 36 stolen bases in 218 games

Basallo has great speed for a catcher and hopefully will become a bit more patient at the plate as he matures. With Orioles backup catcher James McCann’s contract expiring at the end of this season, Basallo is in a perfect position to make his MLB debut next season. The only issue will be finding him a spot on the field because he’s too good to leave in a backup role but Rutschman isn’t going anywhere.